Soccer | St. Viator shows up in second half to defeat Notre Dame

A late arriver to St. Viator on Wednesday afternoon might have thought the Lions were losing to visiting Notre Dame by the way St. Viator coach Mike Taylor was barking at his team.

"The right mindset was not there in the first half," said Taylor, whose team scored early and led 1-0 after the first half.

After a powerful speech by Taylor during the five-minute halftime, the Lions (8-3-1) found the back of the net five times in the final 40 minutes and cruised to a 6-1 victory in Arlington Heights.

"We knew we were the better team coming in, and we didn't get the job done in the first half," said St. Viator forward Mike Decker, who was one of six players to score. "We figured this would be an easy game, and coach was (ticked)."

Bill Krawzak, Matt Morsches, Troy Wheeler, Ashwin Cornelius and Ryan Barth were the other five Lions to score against a Notre Dame backline that featured as many as six defenders at different times.

"You can't just go through the motions, and that's what we did in the first half," said Taylor, whose team has scored 12 goals in its last two games and will host St. Louis-based powerhouse De Smet on Friday. "We weren't where we needed to be (Wednesday), and we can't play like that on Friday."